1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated system and, especially, relates to an integrated system of infrared remote controls.
2. Description of the Related Art
With reference to FIG. 6, current home appliances are usually controlled by infrared remote controls. Each home appliance has a corresponding infrared remote control, for example, a television 41, a karaoke machine 42, a DVD player 43 and a set-top box 44 each having their respective infrared remote controls 411, 421, 431 and 441. Each infrared remote control can only control a home appliance corresponding to the infrared remote control. Therefore, when the user wants to use one of the home appliances, firstly, the user needs to find the infrared remote control of the home appliance, and controls the home appliance by the infrared remote control. As the home appliances increase, the infrared remote controls increase accordingly. It is not easy to quickly find a required infrared remote control to control the home appliance.
When using the infrared remote control, an infrared emitter of the infrared remote control should align with an infrared receiver of the home appliance. If an object is placed between the infrared emitter and the infrared receiver, the infrared remote control cannot control the home appliance. The infrared receiver of the home appliance has a receiving angle and a receiving area. When the infrared emitter of the infrared remote control is out of the receiving angle or the receiving area, the infrared remote control cannot control the home appliance.
The home appliances may be placed in a cabinet with a door of the cabinet closed to maintain appearance of the housing interior design. When the door of the cabinet is closed, the infrared remote control cannot control the home appliance. If the user wants to use the home appliance in the cabinet, the user needs to open the door of the cabinet.
With reference to FIG. 7, a remote control integrated system comprises a host 50, a host remote control 51, and a plurality of infrared transmitters 501. Each infrared transmitter 501 is electronically connected with the host 50 through a wire, and the infrared transmitters 501 respectively adhere to the infrared receivers 412, 422, 432, 442 of the home appliance. An infrared emitting surface of each infrared transmitter 501 is pointed to the infrared receiver of the home appliance. The host remote control 51 is connected with the host 50 through a wireless connection, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or ZigBee. The wireless connection has stronger power than the infrared. Therefore, even though the door of the cabinet is closed, the remote control can connect to the host 50 in the cabinet through the wireless connection. The host 50 is electronically connected to and transmits control signals to the infrared transmitters 501, and the infrared transmitters 501 can emit infrared signals to the infrared receivers of the home appliances to remotely control the home appliances according to the control signals. Therefore, the infrared remote controls of the home appliances can be integrated into the host remote control 51.
The host remote control 51 has a plurality of buttons, but not sufficient for all functions corresponding to all buttons of the infrared remote control of the home appliances. Therefore, when the user uses the host remote control 51 to control the home appliances, the user needs to select a control channel by pressing a channel button on the host remote control 51 to remotely control one of the home appliances corresponding to the selected control channel. However, the user needs to memorize all channel buttons corresponding to all home appliances, or puts marks on the channel buttons as a reminder. When the user forgets which channel button corresponds to which home appliance and when the channel buttons have no marks thereon, the user needs to test the channel buttons for finding the correct control channel to control the home appliance. Further, the host 50 is electronically connected with the infrared transmitters 501 through the wire. Even if the home appliance is placed in the cabinet, the wire still extends out of the cabinet for electronically connecting to the host 50. The host 50 may be taken in the cabinet, but some home appliances, such as a television, cannot be placed in the closed cabinet. Therefore, the wire extends out of the cabinet for electronically connecting the host 50 and the television. From the foregoing description, the remote control integrated system needs to be improved.